FCC Dismisses Bid to Boost Online Privacy

(CN) – In a loss for privacy activists, the Federal Communications Commission ruled Friday that it lacked the power to make Google, Facebook, LinkedIn and other companies stop scooping up the data of users with “Do Not Track” requests. In its two-page order, wireline competition bureau chief Matthew DelNero wrote that the commission has been “unequivocal in declaring it has no intention to regulate edge providers,” a catch-all term covering most websites and app-makers. The commission planned to adopt rules governing broadband Internet action service, but it added that it was “not regulating the Internet, per se, or any Internet applications or content,” according to the order. Consumer Watchdog, the California-based activist group that filed the unsuccessful petition, promised to take further action before state regulators, Congress and the courts. “We believe the FCC has the authority to enforce Internet privacy protections far more broadly than they have opted to do and are obviously disappointed by this decision,” the group’s privacy project director John Simpson said in a statement.